Bizarre fish with hands found 20 years after it was thought to be extinct

15 September 2023 , 21:28

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The critically endangered species uses its "hands" to walk along the ocean floor. (Image: Credit: Kerri Yare via Pen News)

A bizarre fish with hands instead of fins has been found where it was thought to be extinct, almost 20 years after its last sighting.

Kerri Yare was running along a beach in Primrose Sands, Tasmania, Australia when she sighted the elusive spotted handfish. She said: "I'm always interested in any creatures I notice while running. It looked like a small pufferfish or toadfish, of which I have seen plenty, but when I looked closer, underneath a layer of sand, I recognised its small hand-shaped fins. It was definitely a wow moment."

The critically endangered species uses its "hands" to walk along the ocean floor. Before the chance encounter, it was thought to be locally extinct and Carlie Devine of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said there were only 2,000 left in the world. She said: "Up until last weekend's find, we thought this spotted handfish population at Primrose Sands was locally extinct, and that it had been since before 2005. We did look a few years ago too, but we didn't find a single fish. This gives us cause to go looking again."

Karri Yare who spotted the fish (Credit: Kerri Yare via Pen News)

The spotted handfish was the first marine fish listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, according to CSIRO. Their decline has been attributed to near-shore dredge fisheries hunting for scallops and invasive species destroying their habitats. They're also hard to find, due to their small size and solitary nature.

Carlie continued: "They are rare and elusive. Prior to the 1990s, spotted handfish were easily found. However, the population has separated and there are now only nine isolated populations. We now know that we must monitor these sites every year. We may only see one or two fish over a 60-minute dive, and sometimes none. We can estimate there are about 2,000 spotted handfish left in the wild."

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Efforts are now being undertaken in order to prevent the species from dying out entirely. As well as introducing artificial spawning habitats where their natural habitats have been destroyed, an "insurance population" is being kept in commercial aquariums. Carlie said this stops extinction but also breeds the fish and keeps the juveniles safe until they are a bit older. She said they put them back in the river in the hope they can increase numbers in the wild.

She continued: "Through this programme, we've already released a small number of juveniles into the wild and we are excited to see the ongoing impact of our work. We're not done yet. Having found the fish, Kerri - unsure whether it was still alive or not - returned it to the water. I would have hated to think that I could have just left it on the beach to die. I am still quite blown away by the interest in this little fish."

Michael Havis